How Tech Is Saving Lives During the COVID19 era?

How Tech Is Saving Lives During COVID19 era? 

Digital technology uses during the COVID-19 pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic relentlessly spreads globally, it has pushed healthcare systems to their limits and compelling governments and healthcare institutions to rethink their service delivery strategies.

In this baffling battle, science and technology are playing a vital role. For example, early in the outbreak, when China initiated its response to the virus, it focused on artificial intelligence (AI) by relying on facial recognition cameras to track the infected patients with travel history, robots to deliver food and medicines, drones to disinfect public places, to patrol and broadcast audio messages to public encouraging them to stay at home. AI has been used extensively to discover new molecules on the way to find aid for COVID-19. Many researchers are using AI to find new drugs and medicines for the cure, along with some computer science researchers focusing on detecting infectious patients through medical image processing like X-rays and CT scans. AI is even developing tracking software like monitoring bracelets that helps in the classification of people breaching the quarantine rule. Smartphones and AI-enhanced thermal cameras are also being used for detecting fever and infected people. Countries like Taiwan infused the national medical insurance database with inputs from the immigration and customs database, hence confronting the coronavirus patients based on their travel history and symptoms

In all, AI is used to identify, track and forecast outbreaks. It is helping in diagnosing the virus. It is used in processing healthcare claims. Drones and robots are used to deliver food and medicine supplies and sterilize public places. AI is helping to develop drugs and coronavirus vaccines using supercomputers

COVID Detection and Testing

Healthcare systems are tackling COVID-19 using digital technology to maintain core and critical clinical services. Virtual clinics are used as telemedicine consultations without physical crowding. The use of an AI-based chatbot helps recognize early symptoms in patients and start medication. The highly productive technologies for testing and detecting corona in hospitals and clinics are Io T devices integrated with AI, big data analytics, block chain technology, and deep learning systems. By implementing these technologies in the health care system, understanding model risk associations, prediction outcomes, and healthcare trends become more effective and efficient.

Quarantine and self-isolation

The indiscriminate lockdowns for infection control in several countries have had severe socioeconomic consequences. With digital technology, quarantine can be implemented in individuals who have been exposed to or infected with the virus, with less strict restrictions imposed on other citizens. Here are some examples:

China's quick response (QR) code system, in which individuals are required to fill out a symptom survey and record their temperature, allows authorities to monitor health and control movement. The QR code serves as a COVID-19 health status certificate and travel pass, with color codes representing low, medium, and high risk; individuals with green codes are permitted to travel unrestricted, whereas individuals with red codes are required self-isolate for 14 days. China also uses AI-powered surveillance cameras, drone-borne cameras, and portable digital recorders to monitor and restrict the gathering of people in public. 

In Taiwan, electronic monitoring of home-quarantined individuals is facilitated through government-issued mobile phones tracked by GPS; in the event of a breach in quarantine, this so-called digital fence triggers messages to the individual and levies fines. In South Korea, individuals in self-isolation are instructed to download a mobile phone application that alerts authorities if they leave their place of isolation. In Hong Kong, people in self-isolation must wear a wristband linked through cloud technology to a database that alerts authorities if quarantine is breached. Iceland has launched a mobile phone solution to monitor individuals with COVID-19 and ensure that they remain in self-isolation.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD

Many of the technological changes imposed so rapidly on our health care systems by the pandemic have been positive and may be beneficial as we move forward. Will such measures become part of the new normal? Will it become a regular part of health care monitoring and understanding? It is our responsibility to ensure the legacy of this forced experimentation. Play your role, preserve the best, and do not go back to the old normal

By: Sara Ghorbani 

References:

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Liu J. Deployment of IT in China’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. April 2, 2020. https://www.itnonline.com/article/ deployment-health-it-china%E2%80%99s-fight-against-covid-19- pandemic (accessed April 10, 2020)

 Ruiz Estrada M.A. The uses of drones in case of massive Epidemics contagious diseases relief humanitarian aid: Wuhan-COVID-19 crisis. SSRN Electron J. 2020 doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3546547. (February)

Maghdid H.S., Ghafoor K.Z., Sadiq A.S., Curran K., Rabie K. 2020. A novel AI-enabled framework to diagnose coronavirus COVID 19 using smartphone embedded sensors: design study; pp. 1–5.http://arxiv.org/abs/2003.07434 

Wang J, Ng CY, Brook RH. Response to COVID-19 in Taiwan: big data analytics, new technology, and proactive testing. JAMA 2020; published online March 3. DOI:10.1001/jama.2020.3151

The New York Times. How South Korea flattened the curve. March 23, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/world/ asia/coronavirus-south-korea-flatten-curve.html (accessed April 13, 2020).

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Innovations and new technology are playing a big role in the pandemic/ by Padmini Murthy MD, MPH, MS, and Nayanesh Bhandutia, MS, MBA June 30, 2020

Applications of digital technology in COVID-19 pandemic planning and response/ https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30142-4

A review of modern technologies for tackling COVID-19 pandemic

doi: 10.1016/j.dsx.2020.05.008

Successful Role of Smart Technology to Combat COVID-19/DOI: 10.1109/I-SMAC49090.2020.9243444

Technological impact of COVID-19

Technological impact of COVID-19

Technological impact of COVID-19/DOI: 10.1111/iwj.13578

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